Return, Reenact, Revolution
by Dream Keys
Summary: REWRITE OF LEGACY REBIRTH: Who was Namikaze Minato? How did he come to be? Why are there no other Namikazes in Konoha? And what does Naruto have to do with it? Time-travel in a different way.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **I'm sorry, I lied. I read LR today and realised that I still do love my story. I'm having another go at it now that I'm slightly older now.

This is a rewrite of Legacy Rebirth. The changes in the first few chapters will be pretty minor – a few switches in sentence structure, wording, description etc. The changes will become more apparent in later chapters. I'm trying to compact the story a little more. The chapters will get out of whack as the story continues.

Please keep in mind that I'm not thirteen anymore. Long gone are those one to two updates a week. Stress from school's caught up now, and I really wouldn't be doing this apart from the fact that I'm sentimental like that.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

A child was brought screaming and kicking into the world. His name was Uzumaki Naruto.

Scant moments later, the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him by a man named Namikaze Minato. He was known as the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure.

Minato was killed, his soul taken by the Shinigami, as soon as the seal was complete. He cast one more look at his newborn son and smiled a sad smile that barely reached his eyes.

"I'm sorry…Naruto. I…always wondered if I was hated by the Hokage…but now I know the answer. We're the same." With that cryptic answer, the Yellow Flash slumped, a small smile gracing his lips as his soul was taken to the Death God's stomach.

* * *

><p>The child grew up with the hate of the citizens of Konoha without knowing why. He heard spiteful comments aimed in his direction, and they hurt. Hating the feeling of being shoved aside and forgotten, he turned to pranks in order to gain recognition.<p>

Then, he graduated from the shinobi academy.

But before that, he learned of the reason he was often hated and shunned by the people of Konoha. He learned why people called him a freak and a demon.

It was because he held the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside of him. Uzumaki Naruto was a container, a living sacrifice, a Jinchuuriki.

* * *

><p>Team Seven. This was the name of his genin cell. His teacher, Hatake Kakashi, was a porn addict as well as being habitually tardy. His teammates were Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, one of which was a genius, and the other, Naruto had a crush on.<p>

The team struggled at first, but survived. A mission to Wave Country that was supposed to be far above their standards tied the three children closer together.

* * *

><p>They had only returned for a while before Kakashi decided to nominate them for the Chunin Selection Exams. Being the young and impatient children they were, Team Seven agreed to take part in it. When they entered the pre-exam room, they realized that they truly were rookies compared to most of the other genin in the room.<p>

The proctor's name was Morino Ibiki. One hour, and the first exam was over. Uzumaki Naruto passed only because of his determination not to fail.

There was a survival test. A man wearing a Grass genin's face attacked Team Seven. Sasuke was given a strange mark with three tomoe in a triangular fashion. Exhausted, and helped along by a fellow Leaf genin by the name of Kabuto, the team barely made it through to the third and final round. However, there were too many people still left, and preliminaries were held.

Naruto was to fight Kiba. A combination of good luck and creative thinking enabled him to pass.

* * *

><p>Uzumaki Naruto was happy – he had passed the preliminaries and was going onto the final stage of the Chunin Exam, which was to be held in front of a large audience with civilian and shinobi alike looking on. He asked Kakashi for training, but was denied <em>in favour of Uchiha Sasuke.<em>

The bitter feeling of betrayal slowly passed.

He was passed onto the tutelage of Ebisu, of whom Naruto believed he could defeat already. Contemptuous, he sneered at the man. However, the special jounin proved that he was worthy of the title and surprised the boy. He agreed to let Ebisu teach him.

* * *

><p>The man taught him chakra control in the form of walking on water.<p>

He was interrupted halfway through with the appearance of an apparent pervert.

Angry at the loss of his teacher, Uzumaki Naruto demanded training from the white haired man, who introduced himself as Jiraiya of the Sannin. The Toad Sage taught him summoning.

A boss summon later, Uzumaki Naruto was finally feeling a little momentum on his side.

* * *

><p>Uzumaki Naruto had beaten Hyuuga Neji, the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan and the top of his year's graduating class.<p>

It was to be expected, after all. He had sworn an oath to defeat him, and Uzumaki Naruto never broke a promise.

Sasuke arrived late. His match was delayed until the end of the first round of the tournament. His opponent was Gaara of the Desert.

A short while after the match started, chaos broke out.

Sand ninja and Sound ninja together started the invasion of the Hidden Leaf village. Naruto, along with Shikamaru, Sakura and Shino were instructed to – _go on their second A-ranked mission_ – follow Sasuke, who was pursuing Gaara and his teammates.

Naruto made it there only to see Sasuke in obvious agony, clutching something on the left side of his neck, and Sakura pinned to a tree with a slowly tightening arm of sand.

He summoned. Gaara transformed. Soon the fight was over, with many of the trees scattered, and the sand boy lying on the ground, defenseless and worn out. His siblings appeared, and the three fled.

And Uzumaki Naruto stayed long behind, staring in the direction the red haired boy had gone, because he had finally found a fellow Jinchuuriki.

* * *

><p>He mourned for the Sandaime's death in his somber black attire.<p>

* * *

><p>Uchiha Sasuke deserted soon after. Naruto vowed to bring him back. Operation Retrieve Sasuke began, under the direction of newly promoted chunin Shikamaru.<p>

They failed.

It wasn't that they couldn't defeat the Sound Four, but because of Naruto's personal failure when he attempted to bring Sasuke back.

The Curse Seal was too powerful.

He left on a three year training trip with Jiraiya.

* * *

><p>When Uzumaki Naruto returned, much had happened. Immediately he was sent on a mission to help the Godaime Kazekage, Gaara. Akatsuki had started mobilizing, and by the time his team reached the Akatsuki base, Gaara was dead, and the Shukaku extracted.<p>

Chiyo, the woman who had sealed the Shukaku into Gaara, used a life restoring technique, resurrecting him, and subsequently sacrificing herself.

* * *

><p>When Naruto returned to Konoha, Jiraiya was waiting for him, with the grave news that another Jinchuuriki had fallen to Akatsuki. The two left again for another few months, and when they returned, Naruto was stronger than ever. Jiraiya had taught him a few new techniques, and had worked on his taijutsu, as well as introducing to him the secret power of the kage bunshin. Then, with the advanced training that the clones allowed, he had taught Naruto elemental manipulation. With this, he quickly perfected his Rasengan into one handed use, and used his clones to master Futon: Rasengan – a technique that the Yondaime himself had never been able to master.<p>

Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, informed him that Orochimaru had been killed by Sasuke.

* * *

><p>A year passed, and then another. Naruto advanced to chunin, and then jounin in quick succession. He perfected his Rasenshuriken, and improved his control over the Kyuubi's power.<p>

And then he stumbled across Itachi, who was without his partner Kisame, for some odd reason. However, this mattered little to Naruto, who was busy fighting for his life. He flared the chakra of the Kyuubi sharply, and then dived forwards with a Rasengan in hand. As the swirling ball of chakra impacted on Itachi's stomach, Naruto reflected that it had been too easy. The Uchiha hadn't even activated his Sharingan at all.

Naruto left the battlefield site, unable the shake the feeling of guilt he had when he realized he had just killed Sasuke's brother, making it impossible for him to achieve his revenge.

* * *

><p>Sasuke confronted Naruto scarcely a month later, ironically meeting him at the Valley of the End once more. Naruto overpowered his Chidori with his improved elemental Rasengan, and managed to punch him into the statue of Uchiha Madara, knocking him unconscious.<p>

He returned to Konoha, errant Uchiha in tow.

When Naruto arrived, several ANBU kept Sasuke sedated and took him to a specialised chakra-sapping cell in a dungeon below the Hokage tower.

Tsunade asked for his presence in the Hokage tower soon after, with Jiraiya, and informed him of his parentage. Naruto spent the rest of the day alternating between being hateful towards his father for abandoning him, and positively gleeful that he was the son of a Hokage. In the end, he settled for being happy, and asked Jiraiya to teach him Hiraishin, of which he had heard about from a scroll he had obtained from the local library. The Toad Hermit had replied that Minato had never taught him the Flying Thunder God Technique, but he had a vague idea of where to start.

He then proceeded to teach Naruto how to seal for the subsequent half year.

* * *

><p>"Brat? Brat! Stop snoring and get up!" Jiraiya's loud voice knocked him out of his slumber.<p>

"Huh? What?" A sleepy mumble from the pallet was the only noise that came from Naruto. The two were in a small clearing behind the Hokage Monument, experimenting on Hiraishin.

Jiraiya huffed in annoyance and employed a Suiton jutsu against Naruto, causing him to splutter and immediately exit his pallet with a speed to rival Lee's. As he dried himself off, Jiraiya reached into an interior pocket in his red coat and brought out an odd looking three pronged kunai with kanji written around the handle.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, barely taking a look at the kunai as he stretched and grabbed an empty scroll from his hip pouch.

"This," Jiraiya said, "is what Minato used as a marker for his Flying Thunder God technique."

At this, Naruto snatched the kunai out of his hands and immediately started turning it over and examining it. "The seal array…they're identical," he mumbled, jotting something down on his scroll. He continued to talk to himself for a while until Jiraiya cleared his throat.

"Well…" he announced, "It looks like you're quite busy over there, so I'm just going to go to the hot springs…I'll see you around later!" The self-proclaimed super pervert giggled lecherously to himself as he stood. Naruto, immersed in the intricacies of the kunai seal, waved a flippant hand at him.

"Yeah, yeah, Ero-sennin," the demon container murmured, not looking up and seeing Jiraiya's mock hurt at being brushed off so easily. "See you later."

The Sannin sulked for a moment before leaping away, his faux-dark mood already being chased away with mental images of his newest research projects.

* * *

><p>Naruto sat back on his heels, bored. After an hour of examining and experimenting with the Hiraishin kunai, he thought he nearly had the jutsu down. He glanced at the near-midday sun, and then down at his scroll that he had hastily scribbled the kunai's original seal array on.<p>

Picking up his ink brush, Naruto dipped it in the portable ink container located at the head of the scroll (given to him courtesy of Sai) and looked at the arrangement again, before shrugging and doodling random seals on the scroll, figuring that he wouldn't really have a use for the written down seal arrangement again.

The not quite eighteen year old boy sighed as he looked longingly at the three pronged kunai, slipping a finger through the hole at the end and letting it dangle, unknowingly copying a pose from the Yondaime himself. Jiraiya had expressly forbidden him from trying out the Hiraishin jutsu without him being present, but honestly, one try couldn't hurt, could it?

Naruto stood up slowly, the slightly stunted grass tickling the bare soles of his feet as he absentmindedly twirled the kunai around on his finger. He calculated the amount of chakra he would have to push into the jutsu, and without thinking, abruptly halted movement and brought the kunai into a guard position- or tried to.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed as blood trickled down his finger from the shallow cut he had accidentally made with his kunai. He had forgotten that the three pronged Hiraishin kunai was longer – and much different in shape – to his normal ones.

Naruto looked around the area once more before selecting a tree to throw the kunai at. He twisted, preparing to shoot his chakra out, but stopped a second before going through with the jutsu.

'I should probably practice throwing the damn thing before even trying,' Naruto thought ruefully, before snapping his arm back and hurling it at the tree.

* * *

><p>Jiraiya caught himself just as he was about to fall, balancing precariously along the wooden divider. He giggled perversely one more time a thin trickle of blood coming out of his nose, and then sighed in disappointment as he eyed the position of the sun in the sky.<p>

'Heh…time's not going to run backwards,' the Sannin thought regretfully, as he turned away from the hot springs and wiped the remains of his nosebleed away. 'I should check back on Naruto to see how he's doing.'

* * *

><p>Tsunade was busy reading a mission briefing written by Kurenai when Shizune rushed in, not even bothering to knock.<p>

"Look, Lady Tsunade!" she gasped, thrusting a newspaper in her face. Tsunade snatched the newspaper out of the other medic-nin's hands and furiously skimmed it.

'Damn it all…' she cursed as her eyes took in the gambling section.

She had won the grand lottery prize.

Tsunade raced to the window facing the Hokage Monument as a huge shockwave blasted through the entire village.

'An earthquake?' she thought, before discarding the idea. 'No, couldn't be…the source is from the top of the Hokage Monument.' She turned around again, before…

The Godaime blinked stupidly for a second, before whipping around as a second blast shook the Hokage Tower.

"..Naruto!" she exclaimed, already jumping out of the window, chakra grasping onto the walls. "He's up on the Monument!"

* * *

><p>"What on earth was that?" Jiraiya shouted as the first jolt caused the ground beneath him to shake. He took one look at the Hokage Monument before setting off at a dead run for where he knew Naruto was located.<p>

* * *

><p>"<strong>Hiraishin no Jutsu!"<strong>

Naruto flung the sealed kunai at the tree, concentrating on the thin line of chakra that connected him to the blade, and smiled in satisfaction as he felt a slight tug…only to look in horror as a swirling bright vortex of light engulfed him, sending spots to his eyes. Through the light, he could dimly make out the inked seals on the scroll he had experimented, and a small splatter of blood on it. His eyes widened in realization.

"_Damn it!" Naruto cursed as blood trickled down his finger from the shallow cut he had accidentally made with his kunai._

The seal array flared a violent yellow and Naruto groaned, clapping his hands over his eyes as the supernova threatened to blind him.

"What are you doing, brat?"Kyuubi roared as his container twisted around and collapsed in agony. A low keening sound started, quickly rising in pitch and volume until it was a vicious high pitched whine that felt like it could puncture the blond boy's ears.

"S...seal," Naruto choked out, as Tsunade landed at the edge of the churning vortex of light. "Tsunade baa-chan!"

"Naruto!" she cried out in helpless dismay as the intense brightness all but engulfed Naruto. Next to her, Jiraiya climbed the last few steps of the Hokage Monument and hurried to her side.

"…I see," Kyuubi said, sounding almost…nostalgic. "Now I see what the Yondaime meant when he sealed me…"

"What?" Naruto gasped as the current around him increased. The air felt alive with electricity. A wave of nausea overtook him and he retched, involuntarily opening his eyes and then flinching back in pain. There was nothing but piercing white light.

"There's nothing you can do to stop this,"the demon fox murmured, not appearing to hear Naruto. "Good luck in the future…or shall I say past?"

"_What are you talking about, you stupid old fox?_" Naruto screamed as his chakra spiraled out of control and mixed with the already virulent, painful light.

"_I'm sorry…Naruto. I…always wondered…"_

"_**Hiraishin no Jutsu!"**_

"_Don't worry-"_

"_-chan, I promise."_

"BAA-CHAN! ERO-SENNIN!"

And with that, Uzumaki Naruto disappeared from the world in a yellow storm of chakra and light.

* * *

><p>"…looks like…"<p>

"..awaken-"

"-doctor…send…"

"Send for a bloody medic, kid!" someone shouted. There was a brief silence, punctured by the soft pitter-patter of running feet. Naruto grunted as the noise seemed to amplify itself by a hundredfold. Slowly opening his eyes, and half expecting to be blinded by the golden light, Naruto became aware that he was lying in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling of the immaculate and sterile hospital room. Naruto groaned and closed his eyes again.

"Ah, you're awake." A calm male voice interrupted his moment of blissful silence.

"Whooareyoo?" Naruto slurred, his head pounding as he feebly tried to lift himself up off the bed. "Where am I?" The male's hand gently pushed him back down.

"Calm down, would you?" the man chuckled softly. "My name is Yakushi Tetsuya. You are in Konoha Hospital."

_Yakushi?_ Naruto thought, his half-asleep mind whirring furiously. After a few seconds, it hit him. _Kabuto?_

Naruto snapped his eyes open and stared at the brown haired man. He looked like he was in his late twenties.

Tetsuya walked over to the foot of Naruto's bed and tied the clipboard he was holding onto a piece of string. Then he walked back and extended a green glowing hand across Naruto's chest.

"I'm running a diagnosis," the medic-nin told him. "You appear to be clean now, and soon you'll just have a rather large bruise on your head."

Naruto blinked a few times. Something didn't seem quite right.

"Um…Tetsuya-san," he began, his voice slightly raspy. "How did I get here?" And in his mind, he added, _did Tsunade baa-chan or Ero-sennin take me here?_

Tetsuya raised his eyebrows. "You don't remember?" he asked, but then shook his head. "Well, I guess that's not really a surprise. You did get a concussion, after all. One of our chunin patrols found you a little beyond the northern gate. We don't really know much besides that." The man glanced at his watch.

"Look, kid, I'm sorry, but I can't stay here for much longer. Sandaime-sama is expecting." He started to turn around.

Naruto's eyes widened. Sandaime? "Wait!" he called. "What do you mean, San-"

"Tetsuya-san!"

Tetsuya turned back to Naruto with a pleading expression on his face. "I've got to run, kid. I promise I'll talk to you later!" he twisted back around and opened the door. "I'm coming, Tsuke-san!"

The door slammed shut.

Naruto tore off his sheets and jumped out of the bed, grimacing slightly at his hospital gown and the feel of the cold tiles underneath his bare feet. He hurried to the window and stared out at the faces of the three Hokages on the Hokage Monument.

Wait. Three Hokages?

Naruto rubbed his eyes furiously and stared at the unmarred face of the Sandaime Hokage. He slowly arranged his hands in the ram seal.

"Kai!" he whispered.

Nothing happened.

'What…what's going on?' Naruto thought. His heart was beating faster, and he felt like he couldn't get a breath in. _Is this the result of that stupid seal I made?_

The door opened again, and a nurse stepped into the room. "What are you doing out of bed, young man?" she questioned, pointing back at the bed with a commanding finger. "Get back in there at once!"

The nurse was tall, Naruto thought inanely. Or was he just shorter? However, he disregarded that thought as he frantically tried to come up with an excuse.

"Uh…I just needed to go to the toilet," Naruto replied meekly, trying to seem as pathetic as possible.

"Oh! That's okay then," the woman said brightly, any suspicion clearing from her face. "I'll take you to the bathroom."

* * *

><p>When he looked in the mirror, Naruto got quite possibly, the biggest shock of his life. He blinked at the mirror.<p>

The face of a child blinked back.

This child had spiky blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. In fact, he looked almost exactly like what Naruto looked like when _he_ was a child, except this one had a slightly narrower jaw line, and more defined cheekbones.

Well. For a child, at any rate.

It was like a distorted reflection of his younger self.

However, the face that stared back at Naruto didn't have his trademark whisker marks. This boy couldn't be him, Naruto decided. He looked far too much like the boy in the picture Jiraiya had shown him of his old team…

He snapped back to the present as the nurse rapped smartly on the door outside.

"Are you quite finished in there yet?" she called, a tinge of impatience in her tone.

"Um…yeah," Naruto replied, hurrying out. There was only one way to find out for sure…

…and besides, he didn't even know if he was in the past.

In his room, Naruto turned around to face the nurse.

"Um…did I tell you my name?" he asked, wringing his hands together nervously. The lady looked at him in surprise.

"You can't remember?" she asked, looking shocked. "You really must have hit your head quite hard."

"Do you know?" Naruto pressed. The nurse gestured at the clipboard at the end of his bed.

"Before you passed out, you told the patrol that your name was Namikaze Minato," she said. "It's my lunch break now, Minato-kun. I should go now."

She left, closing the door gently behind her, as Naruto rushed towards the clipboard.

_Namikaze Minato._

_Age 6._

_Blood type B._


	2. 1 Finding Friends

**Author's Notes: **As this story was originally written three years ago, obviously some elements of canon Naruto aren't going to be included. No, Kushina isn't going to grow up with Naruto in Konoha. The Kyuubi wasn't sealed in her originally.

Also, this isn't going to be a story about a super powered Naruto. There's already enough of it in canon, and I'm not giving him any other powers than absolutely necessary. This stuff won't be coming until later in the story, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One <strong>

_Finding Friends_

Naruto spent the remainder of the day and then the next morning trying to get his head around his new situation. Clearly, something had happened when he had activated the seal – but what? And how had he ended up _here_, in the child body of Namikaze Minato?

Twice, he caught himself breathing faster, the heart monitor speeding up in urgency. Taking deep, calming breaths each time, Naruto forced himself to calm down.

_You're a ninja,_ he berated himself silently, as Tetsuya entered the room again. _Play along until you can figure out what's going on._

"Hey, Minato," said Tetsuya, smiling. "If you're feeling up for it, the Hokage would like to see you."

Naruto looked up, feeling quite disconcerted by the height difference between the two of them. To compensate, he stood up, pushing away from the bed. "Why?"

"The Hokage likes to hear about any new arrivals in Konoha, especially about ones as uncommon as yours. I think he would probably like to see if you were trustworthy or not. Security evaluation, you know." After a moment, he added, "Although I wouldn't worry if I were you. You're just a kid."

Naruto barely remembered to plaster a look of relief on his face before Tetsuya got suspicious. "Alright," he answered, feeling a little trepidation in him. He hadn't forgotten what the head of the hospital had told him before, nor could the view of the Hokage Monument be etched out of his mind.

There was really only one way out: forward.

* * *

><p>It really was true. The proof was right in front of him, seated in a wooden chair and smoking a pipe.<p>

"Good morning, Minato-kun," Sandaime Hokage said pleasantly as Naruto sat down, hard. His face twitched, trying not to betray the whirling of thoughts spinning around in his mind. "I trust the hospital food wasn't too bad?"

Naruto was silent for a moment, distracted by the swinging of his legs that couldn't quite touch the ground. "It was okay, old man," he replied absently, and raised his eyes to stare at the middle aged Professor, studying the wrinkles on his face... or rather the lack thereof.

Then he froze, eyes darting to the Hokage and back to the floor as he realised his mistake.

The chunin guard at the door made a strange choking noise in the back of his throat as the Sandaime laughed, a deep rich sound that had the deep baritone of one in his prime.

"I'm not quite that old yet," he told Naruto, amused. Then his expression grew a little more serious.

"But let's get down to business, shall we, Minato-kun? How did you come to be at Konoha?" Sarutobi leaned back, puffing on his pipe. "The chunin patrol that found you informed me that there were no signs of any other injuries aside from a concussion."

Naruto blinked. "I don't know how I got here," he said truthfully, and twitched almost imperceptibly as he saw the Hokage's eyes narrow slightly. "I...I can't remember anything from before the hospital."

Suddenly, Naruto was terrified. He couldn't tell the Third – he had no idea what was going on himself. The man was looking at him in suspicion, anyway. Child he may be, but the Hokage barely knew him. And a child coming out of nowhere and finding a Hidden Village...Naruto wasn't stupid, and he knew that the Hokage wasn't stupid. Behind the mask of a benevolent and kind man there was the sharp analytical mind of an experienced shinobi.

Naruto would have to keep his little secret for a while longer. At least until he figured out _what_ exactly his secret was.

"Forgive me if I seem a little blunt," Sarutobi quietly spoke, bringing Naruto back to the present. "Our village was only recently involved in the Second Great Shinobi World War. You must excuse me if I seem a little suspicious of an unexpected arrival, child or not."

Naruto said nothing, his mind awhirl as he digested this new information. The old- no, the middle aged shinobi chuckled.

"Ah, I'm afraid rambling on again," he said amiably, a sudden shift in tone. Naruto was immediately suspicious. _Was he going for another angle of attack?_ "Will you be staying in Konoha, then?"

A little thrown off balance by the sudden change of subject, Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I've got nowhere else to go."

Sarutobi nodded. "For a child, you seem quite capable," he mused, stroking his short goatee. "I don't suppose you would like to live on your own, would you?"

Naruto smiled. "It'll just be like old times!" he cheered, although inside, his mind was in turmoil. "Thanks Hokage-jiji!"

"No problem, Minato-kun. Aiko?"

A rather tall black haired woman walked into the room, and although she flashed a disarming smile at Naruto, he could see her kunai holster strapped to her right leg and the equipment pouch on her hip. He got the strange feeling that all of this had been arranged beforehand.

"Hello there, Minato-kun!" Aiko had a cheerful grin. "I'll take you to your apartment now."

Naruto slipped off his seat and ambled away with the kunoichi, but just before leaving, he turned around.

"Old man?" he asked, sticking his hands into his black pant pockets. "What's the date today?"

"January 25th," Sarutobi replied.

Naruto's eyes widened as he realised the importance of the day. Suddenly, he felt grateful that he had decided to read his old history books. "Oh...I think...today's my birthday." Slightly dazed, Naruto turned around and left.

Sarutobi watched both of them leave. _Interesting_, he thought as he took a small puff.

* * *

><p>"What is it, Tsunade?" Jiraiya grumbled, climbing through the large window overlooking the village. The white haired sage had seemed to be in a perpetually grumpy mood ever since Naruto had vanished from the village. "It had better be damn important."<p>

"It is," Tsunade replied crisply, and reached behind her desk. "Look at this," she said.

* * *

><p>"Your apartment number's thirteen," Aiko told him as the pair entered the lift. Naruto studied her while her back was turned to him, and shifted his eyes away as the door closed behind them.<p>

_Probably a high chunin, _he surmised as she readjusted her kunai holster. _No jounin would fiddle around like that._

With a slight 'ding', the elevator doors slid open, revealing a red carpeted hallway with cream coloured walls. They walked down the short hallway until they reached a wooden door. A plaque with the number thirteen written on it in gold lettering was nailed to it. Digging into her pouch for a moment, Aiko soon pulled out a key with a flourish.

"Here's the key for your apartment," she told him as she handed it over. "I recommend you don't lose it."

She slotted the key into the lock and opened the door. The two went inside. "Hokage-sama will give you an allowance for whatever you need, be it food, clothes, or any other accessories," the woman said, sitting down on a couch as Naruto took in the view.

The living room was rectangular in shape, and much larger than the tiny space that was Naruto's old flat. It contained a television set, two cream coloured couches and a small coffee table in the middle. The room then lead to a small kitchenette and a dining table for two.

"This is great!" Naruto exclaimed. "Thanks, Aiko-san!"

Inwardly, he was pleased that it was not the same building that he had inhabited before, in his younger days.

Aiko smirked. "Don't thank me, thank Hokage-sama," she informed him, flicking black hair backwards. "Your bedroom's over that way, by the way. Spare changes of clothes are in the wardrobe." She jerked her hand towards a doorframe to the right of the room.

Just then, a messenger bird fluttered through the open window and landed on Aiko's arm. Eyes widening slightly, she took the note from the pigeon and abruptly stood up. Naruto craned his head to look at her.

"I've been summoned by Hokage-sama," she said, a frown briefly appearing on her features before it was smoothed out. "I'll see you around later, 'kay?" She ruffled Naruto's hair and headed towards the slightly ajar door.

"Oh, and close that window," she said as an almost afterthought. "It's winter. You'll catch a cold."

"I don't get colds," Naruto replied absently, still looking around the room. _Kyuubi protects me from such mundane things._

Aiko laughed. "Suit yourself, then."

* * *

><p>Naruto found, when he looked in his cupboard, that there were quite a few spare changes of clothes, for which he was rather grateful.<p>

But it also made him question Sandaime's motives. Why was the Hokage so trusting, even after warning him about spies? Naruto had many questions to ask, and the best possible way to get them answered was to ask Kyuubi.

He exchanged his plain grey clothes for a white shirt and blue shorts, his hand momentarily pausing around his right thigh as he tied on an imaginary kunai holster. Then he righted himself, and sank down slowly on his bed, closing his eyes.

* * *

><p>Naruto opened his eyes to the familiar sewer like tunnels of his mind, slogging through the water in the familiar path to take him to Kyuubi. So lost in his thoughts was he that he didn't realise that he had arrived at Kyuubi's prison until a good minute later.<p>

Or rather, where Kyuubi's cage used to be.

It wasn't that the Kyuubi was not present, or that the gates were open and the seal ripped off, but rather _the prison itself was gone, as if it had never existed._

Naruto dimly felt his eyes widen and his mouth drop open through the distant roar in his head. Where was the fox?

"Kyuubi!" Naruto shouted, cupping his hands to his mouth. The lack of cage disturbed him, and a faint note of hysteria entered his voice. "Where the hell are you?"

The answer suddenly fell on him like a ton of bricks. Of course Kyuubi wasn't there. The nine-tails was somewhere out in the wilds, because he was Minato and Minato hadn't sealed the beast yet.

"Damn it!" he hissed. Now he'd never get his questions answered.

"Would you quiet down a little?" came a soft voice from behind him. "You're going to give me a bad reputation with that unholy screaming."

Naruto whipped around, slightly off balance from the new voice. "Who are you?" he demanded into the darkness.

A blonde haired man stepped out of the shadows, a white trench coat decorated with red flames fluttering around his wiry frame.

"Hello, Naruto."

"Yondaime," Naruto whispered, stumbling back as the Fourth Hokage stepped forwards. "What are you doing in my mind?"

The other laughed. "I'm not actually in your mind," Namikaze Minato told him. "I'm not even really the Fourth. You are. Or you will be, at any rate."

"Then who are you?" Naruto snapped. His hand drifted to his thigh, where his kunai holster was supposed to be.

"An echo," came the elusive answer. "An echo of your future and past."

"Answer the question, damn it!" Naruto growled, his patience coming to an end.

Minato was silent for a while, only fuelling Naruto's growing irritation. Finally, he spoke. "You are now Namikaze Minato," he said. "Believe me, you're not the first. But you have to preserve the timeline."

"What do you mean?" Naruto demanded. "What are you talking about?"

The apparition started to fade, and Naruto rushed forward. "Don't run away, you coward!"

"I can't tell you yet," Minato said. "You have to figure out the rest for yourself. I'm sorry, it was the same when I came here." He was almost gone now, but before he disappeared he offered one last sentence.

"Whatever happens will happen right, and everything will work out in the end."

He disappeared completely, and Naruto slumped, dejected.

_What does he mean?_

* * *

><p>Naruto woke slowly, blinking against the glare of the noon day sun through his closed window. He leaped off the bed and walked over to the window, opening it and relaxing in the presence of the bright sun, but then stiffened.<p>

He took a tentative sniff of the air, and gasped in ecstasy as a certain aroma wafted by his nose.

"YES!" screamed Naruto, as he sped out of his apartment, being careful to pocket his keys. He almost leaped out of the window in his excitement, but reined in the impulse at the last second, figuring that he didn't really want the Hokage or any other shinobi descending on him full of uncomfortable questions.

Instead, he slammed his hand against the 'down' button on the wall beside the elevator. Too impatient to wait for the lift to arrive, the blond boy instead raced down the fire escape stairs, bursting out on to the open street and following his nose.

Ichiraku Ramen was situated at the exact same place as Naruto remembered.

_At least some things don't change. _He quickly crossed the street and walked into the stand, struggling for a moment to clamber into the high stool.

"One extra large pork ramen please!" Naruto beamed at a wrinkle free Teuchi, who saluted and immediately turned to his customer.

"Why hello there, young man!" he called, smiling at Naruto. "What's your name?"

"Nar- uh, Namikaze Minato," Naruto replied, stuttering slightly at the unfamiliar name passing through his lips.

"Well then, Minato!" Teuchi replied. "I'm Teuchi. Here's your ramen, on the house for a first time customer like you!"

"Thanks, oyaji!" Naruto grinned as he dug into his precious noodles.

Ten bowls of ramen later, and leaving a rather shocked ramen bar owner behind, Naruto left the stand.

* * *

><p>Past Konoha, Naruto decided, was much the same as the Konoha he knew. Most of the shops were at the same places, and the atmosphere of the general crowd was generally the same.<p>

As he mused upon the strange words his father had given him before he departed, Naruto spotted three discreet looking ANBU, two on the rooftops and one in the crowd. All three of them were following him.

Naruto understood, in a way, that this was the Sandaime's way of assuring himself that Naruto was not a threat. Naruto didn't alter his stride; giving no signal that he had spotted the ANBU at all. He realised that a child of his – Minato's – age should not be able to spot a chunin, let alone the most elite.

Unless they were already ninja trained themselves.

* * *

><p>Naruto met with Aiko again later in the day, and she showed him around the village in what she classified as a 'real tour'. She revealed that she was a senior chunin after some subtle probing by Naruto. Thankfully, she didn't seem suspicious of his questions.<p>

By the time Aiko had finished dragging Naruto around town, it was already late in the evening, so she took Naruto to a barbeque joint, where they were warmly welcomed by the manager. It was a rather novel experience to Naruto to be welcomed into any kind of store in Konoha without some kind of harassment, but he coped.

After dinner, and a hearty farewell by the shopkeeper, Aiko took Naruto the Hokage Tower. She left him outside the Hokage's room as she herself went in, claiming that she needed to talk with the Hokage alone about a mission of hers.

Taking the absence of the chunin guard in stride, Naruto pressed his ear to the wooden door and focused some chakra to his ear. His chakra felt a bit off as he accessed it, but Naruto filed that away to be looked into later. Right now, he had some eavesdropping to do.

"How is your mission going, Aiko-chan?" the Hokage asked. There was a slight shuffling sound that indicated Aiko taking a seat.

"So far, so good," she replied. "Minato-kun seems like just an ordinary kid to me."

Naruto's eyes widened. Aiko's mission was about him?

"Hmm..." Sarutobi murmured. "He is extremely mature for his age, and at times seems to almost be older than what he appears to be."

Aiko snorted. "With all due respect, Hokage-sama, the world is a dangerous place. Kids like Minato are forced to grow up fast, or die."

There was silence for a moment. "Perhaps," Sarutobi agreed amicably. "But I do think there is something he isn't quite telling me."

"You mean to say that a _six year old kid_ can deceive the Hokage?" Aiko asked in a sceptical tone. "I think you're looking into this a little too seriously, Hokage-sama."

"Call Minato in please, Aiko," Sarutobi instructed. Naruto barely scrambled back to his seat in time as the door was wrenched open wide.

"Come in, Minato-kun," Aiko said with a smile as she ushered Naruto into the room. "Hokage-sama will see you now."

Once the three were seated, Naruto took the opportunity to study the Third's face as he refilled his pipe. The lines of age and the liver spots had not yet appeared on his face, and his hair was still brown.

Sarutobi's voice broke Naruto out of his inspection. "How are you enjoying your stay in Konoha so far?" he asked, his eyes twinkling merrily as he exhaled a long stream of smoke.

Naruto was acutely aware of the fact that both he and the Hokage knew that he had only been in the village for a day, but kept any unwise comments from slipping out.

"It's great!" he replied enthusiastically. "The people around here are really nice!"

He wasn't lying, either. This village was a drastic change from the blank stares and cold glares that he had received in his own childhood. For a moment, he had a brief flash of envy for his Minato, until he realised that he _was_ him.

"Where did you come from, Minato-kun?" Sarutobi asked him. "I'm quite curious to know."

Naruto panicked. What was he supposed to tell him? What country had his father come from?

Then he remembered Minato's parting words to him.

_Whatever happens will happen right, and everything will work out in the end._

Naruto took a deep breath, and looked at the Third Hokage in the eye. "I come from Nami no Kuni," he said, wistful memories of Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari coming to the fore of his mind. "But I can't remember how I got here..."

Sarutobi nodded. "Perhaps your concussion managed to confuse the memories of your journey here," he said kindly. "Now, perhaps it's time for you to get back home. I believe it's getting quite late."

Sarutobi was right, for when he walked out onto the streets, Naruto found that it was pitch black. He blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted to the dark, and began the trek home.

* * *

><p>"A letter," Tsunade said dully. "It's from Sarutobi-sensei."<p>

Jiraiya's eyes widened as he crossed the room in three strides and peered at the old yellowed paper in the Slug Sannin's hands. For once, she didn't complain as his new perspective gave him quite a spectacular view. "What does it say?" he asked.

Tsunade said nothing, but undid the string and withdrew the letter.

* * *

><p>Naruto collapsed onto his bed, his mind a whirlpool of emotions. He recalled the past day as he pulled the covers over himself. Somehow, he was in a past version of Konoha, in a body that was not his own, and an echo of the Fourth Hokage running around in his head.<p>

Gradually, tiredness overtook him and Naruto sank into a deep, dreamless sleep. Hopefully, the next morning would bring answers.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Tsunade, (or whoever else may be reading this letter)<em>

_If you are reading this, then it must mean that I myself am now deceased from my battle with Orochimaru, and Naruto has already activated what he likes to call the _Jikoku Fūin. _How I know this, you may ask. The answer is quite simple indeed. Naruto himself told me personally, although I believe he is unaware that I am keeping a record of this._

_I will now seal this letter in a concealed space/time pocket in the third drawer of my desk in the Hokage office, covered by a triple-layer genjutsu until both of two things occur- my death, and the Naruto's Time Seal. _

_Naruto explained to me that you would become the Godaime after my death, Tsunade. I am sure that Konoha is safe in your capable hands. And please, if Jiraiya is around, ask him to read this letter as well. _

_That being said, I hereby declare this correspondence an S-class secret. Do not ever speak of this to anyone else. In Naruto's words, 'tattle to someone and the whole universe might collapse upon us'. _

_Perhaps you are wondering what on earth I am talking about- and how Naruto knows that you would become the next Hokage. Once again, the answer to this is simple. _

_You must be confused, Tsunade- after all, this paper looks very old._

_You are correct. If I am correct in my calculations, this letter was written thirty one years ago- now you must be wondering, how could Naruto have told all of this to you if he hadn't even been born yet? Naruto is very much alive, although not in the form and name you know him by. In fact, he goes by the name Namikaze Minato at the moment. _

_Don't look so surprised, Tsunade. You knew him years ago as well as Jiraiya's brilliant genius student._

_Now, I don't particularly understand what exactly the _Jikoku Fūin_ entails as it was one of Minato's- sorry, Naruto's spur of the moment things, but by the way he describes it, Naruto believes that everything will work out well. _

_Once you have finished reading this, destroy it and scatter the ashes. I will rest more easily knowing that the letter and the information it holds is safe. Live well, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and do not regret Naruto's leaving – only know that he is having the time of his life as his own father, the Yellow Flash._

_Sarutobi Hiruzen_

_Sandaime Hokage_

* * *

><p>Naruto knew that his chakra was off the moment he 'poked' at the small pond that was his reserve. He vaguely remembered that his chakra had felt a little different when he had used it to eavesdrop on Aiko and the Hokage's conversation, but he had no idea it would be like this. The boy sighed.<p>

_Back to a normal genin's chakra reserves, _Naruto thought glumly to himself.

Naruto absentmindedly prepared some instant ramen as he juggled with a milk carton, before setting both foodstuffs onto his table. As he slurped up the precious ramen, Naruto reflected on his stay in Konoha.

Life had been good in the few weeks that he had stayed in Konoha, and he was slowly becoming accustomed to the small differences between Minato's life and his – starting with the non-existent hatred from the villagers. He still went around town with a sense of caution, though, convinced that he would be found out for the imposter that he was at any moment.

Sarutobi had made visits to his apartment nearly every week until it became apparent to Naruto that he was trying to learn more about him. After that, Naruto had just gone to visit the Hokage in his office. It seemed to help earn more of the Hokage's trust, much to Naruto's pleasure.

He arched his back in a long, sinuous stretch before getting up and placing his bowl in the sink. He pulled on his sandals and stomped around in them for a bit, making sure they were securely attached, before exiting his flat and locking the door securely. Pocketing the key, Naruto jogged to the elevator and pressed the ground level button.

It was time to start training again.

* * *

><p>After saying his customary greetings and hellos to a few friendly shopkeepers with stalls close to his unit, especially Teuchi from the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Naruto started jogging slowly through the village's cobble stoned streets, pleased to notice that there were not too many people about due to the early hour of the day. He hoped that his child's body wasn't <em>too<em> out of shape, but then remembered that he had years ahead of him to shape up his physique and speed.

Naruto was pleased to notice that he still contained a large amount of stamina, although nowhere near the freakish amounts that he had when he housed the Kyuubi.

He ended up near a chunin training ground, slightly out of breath but pleased with his performance so far. He rested for a few minutes before starting again at a slightly more punishing pace.

After Naruto was comfortable with the pace he was setting, he let his body go on autopilot while he mused to himself in his mind. He was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't realise he had drifted slightly off course and was now headed rapidly towards someone.

Swerving, Naruto narrowly avoided crashing into the person.

"Whoa, slow down!" a voice exclaimed, although not unkindly.

Naruto thundered to a stop and turned, sheepishly. "Sorry, mister," Naruto said, a note of apology entering his tone before he raised his head and took a good look at the man in front of him. "Oh, Tetsuya-san!" he exclaimed. Yakushi Tetsuya, head medic of Konoha General Hospital, looked surprised.

"You have good memory, Minato-kun," he replied, smiling. He shifted, and Naruto noticed a boy of about his age standing behind the man. Seeing where he was looking, Tetsuya nudged the boy forwards.

"This is my son, Katsuo," Tetsuya told him. "He's about your age, I think."

"Hi," Katsuo mumbled, looking down.

"Hey!" Naruto grinned back. "I'm Na- Namikaze Minato!"

Tetsuya smiled at the two before looking curiously at the terrain around them. "What are you doing around the outskirts of Konoha?" he asked Naruto. "It's not a very popular place to visit."

"I've got as much righ – !" Naruto started to say, but cut himself off, realising that he sounded extremely rude. "I mean, I was just running around here, Tetsuya-san! I heard a couple of people say that heaps of cool ninja trained here!" Even as he said it, Naruto cursed inwards, hoping that he hadn't overdone it. He shouldn't have worried though, as the medic didn't seem to mind his curiosity.

"Katsuo has also been pestering me about wanting to watch the chunin train," he replied, smiling.

"_Chunin?_" Naruto whispered, his eyes going wide, although inside he was cracking up. Maybe pretending to be a six year old with the mindset of one thrice the age wasn't as bad as it originally seemed to be.

Katsuo crossed his arms and beamed with pride. "Chichi says some of the ninja around here are really cool!"

"Perhaps you should come around to visit sometime, Minato," Tetsuya offered. "I'm sure my wife as well as Katsuo would love to have you over. We live just over the hill over there."

Naruto squinted. It seemed like a rather isolated place in Konoha to be living in to him, but he refused to comment.

"Thanks, oyaji!" He yelled, and laughed before running off, leaving behind an amused son and a slightly miffed father.

On the way back from the training grounds, Naruto belatedly realised that Katsuo must have been Kabuto's adoptive father.

* * *

><p>After his morning run, Naruto headed back to central Konoha, not surprised one bit to see that the streets were full of bustling civilians going about their daily lives. He ducked into a grocery store, intent on finding some greens to hoard as well as eat for lunch.<p>

"Morning, Kenta!" he yelled over to the shopkeeper. The big burly man grinned and waved back.

"Morning to you as well, Minato-kun!" he called, before turning back to one of his customers. Naruto browsed amongst the store, looking for any familiar looking vegetables that he could buy. Kakashi and Iruka together had plotted to make Naruto eat his greens once, back in his Konoha. Following this, Naruto had had a rather large growth spurt, leaving him as tall as Neji or Lee. Naruto had never complained about vegetables again, much to Kakashi and Iruka's eternal amusement.

Smiling at the memory, Naruto stepped up to the counter to ring up his purchases. After saying his goodbyes to Kenta with a promise to come back soon, Naruto returned with his shopping to number thirteen.

When he opened the door, the delicious smell of cooking ramen hit his nose and Naruto bounded in, intent on finding the chef.

"Hello, Minato," Aiko said cheerfully as she stepped out of the small kitchen to greet Naruto. The black haired kunoichi was wearing a cooking apron and a wooden ladle. The image almost made Naruto laugh, but he settled for a cleverly disguised snort instead.

"Hey, Aiko!" he replied as he noticed the small scratch marks around Aiko's face and the few tears in her ninja garments under the apron. "What happened to you?"

While he waited for an answer, Naruto puttered around the kitchen busily, putting away his groceries into the fridge and poking his head towards the pot, almost earning him a scalded nose. He wondered what the woman was doing in his aparment. Although he definitely wasn't surprised by her presence in the apartment, it was unusual for her to drop in at this time of day.

"Just came back from a mission," Aiko replied casually as she moved Naruto out of the way. "Don't stick your nose in that, brat!"

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her as he flopped onto his sofa and waited for Aiko to finish cooking...and elaborate.

"...and I might have lost my keys accidentally as well," she muttered, her voice so low that Naruto had to strain his ears to hear it.

"You lost your keys?" Naruto asked in disbelief. One look at the rather peeved expression on the kunoichi's face made Naruto dissolve into rather unmanly giggles. "You lost your keys! And you're always telling me to look after my keys!"

Aiko scowled before turning back to the ramen and pouring it into two bowls. She set them down on the small dining table and hid a smile as Naruto immediately jumped up and plopped into a chair.

"You're a ninja, aren't you?" Naruto pointed his chopsticks at her as he settled himself at the table. "So jump through the window, or something!" Aiko looked at him curiously. "How did you know I could jump through a window?" she asked.

Utilising the calm that a long time of being a ninja had given him, Naruto gave a nonchalant shrug as he slurped up his ramen while his mind whirred frantically in an attempt to find a plausible excuse.

"Well, I see heaps on ninja running around on rooftops," Naruto started. "So I figured, if they can jump over roofs like that, then why can't they do one of those big ninja jumps and go through the window?"

Aiko chuckled. "Smart kid, aren't you?"

Naruto grinned in response.

* * *

><p>The rest of the week passed uneventfully, with Naruto waking up early to go on his morning runs. He had a rather close call with the Sandaime when he asked Naruto why he went jogging so early, but luckily his mind quickly provided an answer. Laughing a little nervously, he told the Hokage that he had used to do it before coming to Konoha.<p>

Naruto didn't actually know if Minato had, though, and prayed he was right.

Naruto was out on one of his daily runs at the moment. A few days after he had first started his training, he had familiarised himself with the current Konoha map and plotted out a course to run. It mostly took him to the more isolated areas of Konoha as to avoid any unanswerable questions that could follow him.

He was passing training ground number twenty-seven, a ground reserved for chunin, when he suddenly tripped over a stray rock. Instinctively as he plunged forwards, Naruto ducked his head and pushed his right shoulder forwards in a hasty roll to minimise damage. This skill had been taught to him by an exasperated Jiraiya after a chunin Naruto had started complaining that stray tree branches, rocks and long grasses were out to get him.

Naruto sat up, muttering to himself under his breath. It seemed the habit had carried over, and it was exacerbated by the unfamiliarity of a six year old's limbs to him.

"Are you alright?" a strangely familiar voice queried with a faint rasping tone. Naruto froze before slowly raising his head, somehow dreading what he would see.

He met the slitted yellow eyes of the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru. His eyes widened and he scrambled backwards, knowing that he couldn't even lay a finger on the Sannin in his current state.

"O-Oro – " he choked out, hatred starting to fill him as he remembered how the man had stolen Sasuke from beneath his very nose.

"Oi, Orochi-chan!" another startlingly familiar voice called. Orochimaru scowled, although not at Naruto, and then turned away from him in order to mock glare at the source of the voice.

"What is it, Jiraiya?" Orochimaru scowled. "I haven't the time for your antics."

Jiraiya! The thought echoed in Naruto's mind as he stood up shakily, craning his head for a look at his former teacher.

"Hey there, kid!" Jiraiya gave him the thumbs up. "Meet the great and powerful Toad Sage Jiraiya: me!" he struck a pose and beamed at Naruto.

"Oh, and that's Orochi-teme behind me," he added as if an afterthought. Orochimaru sighed and crossed his arms.

Despite himself, Naruto laughed, Jiraiya and Orochimaru's interaction reminding him of a certain Team 7.

"What are you screaming about over here?" a female voice complained from a little distance away. Tsunade joined her teammates, wrinkling her nose at Jiraiya.

"Why, I'm merely introducing my most esteemed self to this kid here!" Jiraiya exclaimed, before leering at Tsunade. "You approve, don't you, Tsunade-hime?"

A punch later and Jiraiya was nursing a rather large bump on his head. "Don't mind him," she told Naruto. "He's just being an arse, as usual. By the way, the name's Tsunade, the pervert's Jiraiya, and it looks like you've already met Orochimaru. "

Naruto grinned. "I'm Minato!" he said, pleased that he hadn't stumbled over his name. He tensed as Orochimaru spoke up, a slight movement that did not go unnoticed by the Sannin in question.

"As interesting as this conversation must be, my teammates and I must take our leave now," he said, his smooth voice sending shivers down Naruto's spine.

"Oh yeah," Jiraiya replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Sarutobi-sensei's expecting us in five minutes."

"Sarutobi as in the old man?" Naruto interrupted, affecting ignorance. The three exchanged surprised glances with each other, before Tsunade chuckled. "You've got nerve, kid," she applauded, ruffling his hair as she walked by. "Sarutobi-sensei is our teacher."

Naruto turned around to watch the Densetsu no Sannin leave, a strange feeling kindling in his heart as he looked at Tsunade and Jiraiya in particular.

* * *

><p>Naruto bumped into Katsuo a few times at the market. Most of the time they would talk companionably until the time came to leave, parting ways and saying their mutual goodbyes to each other.<p>

A few days later, Aiko appeared through Naruto's window just as he was he was pouring himself some cereal.

"You have an invitation," she told him as she kicked off her sandals at the door and plopped herself onto one of Naruto's couches, sighing in content.

"Mrglpwf?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of milk. "What?"

Aiko wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's disgusting, Minato. Finish chewing before talking next time!" Naruto grinned cheekily and made an exaggerated swallowing motion. "Okay, what do you mean I have an invitation?"

Aiko sat up and faced Naruto. "I was at the hospital today," she elucidated. "I bumped into Tetsuya, who asked me to send an invitation along to you. Turns out he wants you to have dinner over at his place today."

Naruto jumped up. "Cool!" he exclaimed before his face fell. "...but what am I going to wear?"

Aiko frowned at him before slapping him over the head with a bit of rolled up newspaper. "Idiot," she mumbled under her breath. "Who cares what you wear? That's the kind of stuff you worry about when you get older!"

Naruto stuck his tongue out at her. "Well, all I've got are these!" he gestured at his plain white shirt. Aiko snickered, but brushed him off, not deeming him old enough to have to worry about clothes.

* * *

><p>Naruto nervously waited at the front door to the Yakushi household once he had hesitantly knocked on the front door. He was feeling rather anxious, a feeling he rarely had. It was understandable – as a child, he had never been invited to another person's place for any kind of event. He wryly remembered that even after becoming a ninja and gaining friends, still no one had ever thought to ask for his companionship. By the time he and his friends were older, embarrassment stopped anyone from making an offer.<p>

"Oh, good evening, Minato-kun!" a middle-aged woman who Naruto guessed to be Katsuo's mother beamed as she wrenched the door wide open and ushered him inside. "Dinner's just being served!"

Dinner was a nice, quiet affair which Naruto found himself enjoying quite immensely. He and Katsuo talked together in hushed tones, plotting Kami-knows-what, while Tetsuya and Mai looked on happily.

"So, Minato," Mai said, and Naruto sat straighter, facing her. Katsuo gave his mother a look of vague annoyance, both at interrupting him and Naruto from their conversation and also for the inevitable questions that were to follow. "How are you enjoying your stay in Konoha so far?"

Naruto smiled. "It's great," he replied, mirroring the words he had given the Third Hokage.

"Have you given any thought to becoming a ninja?" Tetsuya asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Mai scowled fiercely and whacked him across the head.

"Tetsuya!" she yelled, before dropping her voice to a more conversational level. "Please excuse my husband," she said, although her eyes betrayed her inner amusement.

"Actually, I think I do want to become a ninja," Naruto scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

"Me too!" Katsuo piped up, flinging an arm across Naruto's shoulders, his dark brown hair brushing across Naruto's face. Naruto twitched, shrinking a little at the unexpected contact, before relaxing and grinning at the older couple. Covertly, Tetsuya watched him carefully and frowned a little as he saw Naruto's almost imperceptible flinch.

_Just what kind of a childhood has this boy gone through?_

* * *

><p>Before he knew it, Naruto's anniversary of coming to Konoha had rolled around. Aiko had visited in the morning with a hug and had made ramen just for him, before wishing him a happy birthday. She had then smiled evilly and handed him a box full of blunted kunai. Apparently she had heard about Naruto's wish to become a shinobi. Naruto had grinned and flung one at her, prompting the black haired woman to look at him with narrowed eyes, before pinning Naruto to the couch and unleashing her own Tickle no Jutsu.<p>

Then, after she was sure that her need for vengeance had been sated, Aiko had told him that the Yakushi family were expecting him over again.

"What? _Now?"_ Naruto yelled, pushing Aiko off him in his mad dash to his room to get into some semi-respectable clothes.

Aiko grinned. "Yeah, now!" she called. "I'm leaving, too. Got somewhere else to be!"

Naruto scowled in the depths of his room as he pulled on a dark green jacket over his white shirt emblazoned with his unique swirl pattern. Then he glared at the window as a rather chilling breeze snapped at him and he abruptly sneezed. He slammed it shut, and left the apartment.

* * *

><p>"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MINATO!"<p>

"Wha-what?" Naruto gaped as he entered the Yakushi household. Streamers were hung all over the place, and a huge banner was the centrepiece of the front parlour. His eyes roaming all around the living room, he took in the presence of the few friends that he had made during his stay in Konoha. The Yakushi family, Aiko and even the Sandaime Hokage had made an appearance, brightening Naruto's spirit. Perhaps he had gained Sarutobi's trust after all.

"Sorry about my abrupt exit, Minato," Aiko apologised, although she had a huge grin on her face. "I had to stall you while everyone finished the decorations around here."

"Happy birthday, Minato!" Katsuo said happily as he reached Naruto. Naruto immediately smiled, knowing that he had found a good friend – even if he was only a child. He had never been wished a happy birthday before, even by Sakura or Kakashi. He felt moisture start to well up in his eyes, and forcefully blinked them away. There was no need to arouse suspicion.

"Happy birthday, Minato-kun," the Sandaime greeted him benevolently, laying a hand on Naruto's shoulder as he smiled. "Already seven! Boys do grow up quickly."

Naruto grinned and made a face at Sarutobi. "I know! Soon I'll be just as old as you!"

The Hokage chuckled before moving away, and Naruto immediately made a beeline for Tetsuya and Mai.

By the time the party ended, Naruto could barely stand on his feet. Hazily, he cursed his easily tired out body while at the same time on a cloud from all of the warm feelings that had been spread around the house all day. He made it to a nearby couch just in time to collapse face first on it.

A smile painted Naruto's mouth. His seventh 'birthday' had been one of the best days of his life. He sleepily wondered how he had managed to meet such good people.

There was one last conscious moment, as gentle arms slipped beneath Naruto and lifted him off the couch. "Come now, Minato-kun," Tetsuya murmured. "Let's get you to bed."

* * *

><p><strong>Author Notes: <strong>A lot of edits in scenes, dialogue and description.

**Terms:**

Jikoku Fūin: Time Seal

Chichi: Father (in referral to one's father)


	3. 2 Loss of innocence

**Author's Notes:** What good is a story if you already know its ending?

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

_Loss of innocence_

It was a peaceful spring morning, the tenants of the residential area were waking up to the serene sounds of birds chirping in the air and...there was the sound of a maniacal cackle scant moments before a door was flung open. A short figure charged outside, followed seconds later by a taller, black haired woman. Obscenities split the air.

"_You little brat!_" Aiko screeched as she tore around the corner. "I'm going to kill you!"

Naruto didn't quite dare look back as he raced through the hallway, marvelling at the fact that he could keep ahead of the chunin. He spied the elevator up ahead and risked one glance back at the black haired, pyjama wearing menace sprinting towards him. Gulping nervously, Naruto made a mad dash for the lift. As soon as he reached it, one hand snaked around to the button and pushed it frantically.

"Oh no you don-" Aiko's voice was cut short as the elevator doors slid shut with a satisfying _clang_. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. _Safe._

Naruto hummed quietly as the lift descended, glad to have given Aiko the sli-

"Hello, _Minato-kun._"

Naruto froze.

"I bet you forgot I could jump out of a window, huh?" Aiko smiled sweetly at him. Naruto looked from left to right, and then suddenly gasped in surprise.

"Look, a bird!" he yelled, pointing at the ceiling of the elevator. Aiko instinctively looked up, and Naruto took her momentary distraction as an opportunity to escape. He dived between Aiko's legs and fled for his dear life.

"Wha- hey, brat! BRAT!" Aiko howled as she whipped around, a flush settling on her cheeks. What kind of an experienced chunin let herself be tricked by something like that?

The residents living in Aiko and Naruto's building block all wondered what the sudden commotion was.

* * *

><p>"Save me, Katsuo!" Naruto wailed as he sailed into the other boy's house. "Find me somewhere to hide!" The other boy looked at him in bemusement.<p>

"What?" he asked, as Naruto nervously glanced out of the window. "What did you do this time?"

Naruto said nothing, but jumped up the stairs two at a time and darted into Katsuo's bedroom. Katsuo followed at a steadier pace before grinning as he saw Naruto hide underneath his bed. He flopped onto the bed and pretended to sleep.

Moments later, the door banged open as a not quite out of breath Aiko stood framed in the doorway, sunlight bouncing off her menacingly. Katsuo leaped off the bed and smiled brightly at her.

"Hi, Aiko-san!" he called, trying to lead her downstairs. Aiko batted away the seven year old's attempts at distraction and squatted down next to the bed, lifting the covers. Bright blue eyes stared back at her, wide with trepidation.

Mischievousness reared its ugly head as Aiko exacted her revenge.

* * *

><p>"Ah-choo!" Naruto sneezed as Aiko dropped in from the window. He glared. "Stop doing that!"<p>

Aiko laughed good-naturedly. "You're the one who suggested it in the first place," she retorted. Naruto was about to make a witty comeback when a wave of nausea hit him, causing him to stumble forwards from his standing position.

"Minato!" Aiko cried as he tottered forwards. Naruto grunted as his stomach roiled uneasily, and pressed his lips together. In a brief moment of lucidity, he felt another cool breeze drift through the window that Aiko had come in from, and abruptly sneezed again.

Aiko glanced at the window before briskly walking over and closing it gently. Naruto groaned as he felt a strange sensation in his nose. Soon, he discovered that he couldn't breathe, and his eyes bulged rather comically before his mouth dropped open and he started gasping breaths.

"What is this?" he asked pathetically from his prone position on the floor. Aiko gave Naruto a hard glance before picking him up and depositing him in his bed.

"You're sick," she told him. Naruto stared at her like she'd grown two heads and a tail.

"I don't get sick," he said.

Aiko sniffed in exasperation. "So you told me last time," she informed him, before tucking Naruto in. "I'm going to get you some medicine."

"I don't get sick," Naruto repeated, but Aiko was already out of earshot.

The rest of the day passed by in a haze of sneezing fits, aching throats and feeling as if he had the strength of a baby. By the time Aiko came back, Naruto was already starting to recover, which was sped along with the help of the various medicines.

Naruto soon fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p>"Hey."<p>

"You again!" Naruto shouted, springing to his feet as he pointed an accusing finger at the Yondaime. "I thought you ran away already!"

Minato looked at him sheepishly. "I've actually been here the whole time. I just haven't been talking much," he explained.

Naruto glared and looked away. He still hadn't forgiven Minato for his cryptic words the other day. "What's happening to me?" he asked hotly, crossing his arms. Minato raised his eyebrows.

"You're sick," he replied. Naruto stared angrily at him.

"I'm not sick!" he hissed furiously. "I don't get sick because Kyuubi's always there to –" at this, Naruto broke off, his eyes widening in realisation.

"Kyuubi's gone," Naruto murmured quietly. Minato nodded.

"It's out in the world somewhere, probably wreaking havoc wherever it is," he said, hoping Naruto would get the hint. Comprehension struck the younger of the two like a lightning bolt.

"You mean –" he started, but was cut off by Minato.

"Think about it a few years down the track," he said brusquely. "You have other, more important things at hand."

* * *

><p>A week later, and all traces of illness were long gone. It appeared that even without the rapid healing ability that the Kyuubi had granted him, Naruto recovered quickly.<p>

He still had his weekly talks with Sarutobi, although each visit made him a little more nervous than the last. Naruto twiddled his thumbs, not meeting the Sandaime's eyes as he looked down at the floor. He randomly noticed with a small amount of annoyance that his feet still did not reach the ground.

"Where's Aiko?" Naruto asked, to break the somewhat awkward silence that had settled over the two. He hadn't seen Aiko since the week before. Sarutobi chuckled.

"I'm afraid she will not be able to visit you for a few days yet," he replied. Naruto started to speak again, but the Hokage cut him off gently. "She is taking her jounin exam at the moment."

Naruto's mouth snapped shut with an audible click. "Oh," he said.

The Sandaime Hokage smiled kindly at him. "Don't worry," he reassured Naruto. "I'm sure she will be quite fine. Aiko is a very capable ninja, after all."

Naruto could only nod along with the Hokage, hoping that Aiko's jounin exam wouldn't be like his had been.

* * *

><p>Walking out from the Hokage Tower, Naruto could not help but feel a worried feeling in the pit of his stomach as he wondered how Aiko was doing. However, he could not stop for long to think – the streets were full of thronging people, and he couldn't take to the rooftops without being subjected to extreme suspicion. That left attempting to navigate the crowds without being squashed.<p>

As he was pushing through the crowd, a snatch of conversation drifted past his ears. Naruto turned instinctively, recoiling as Neji stalked straight past him, a furious scowl upon his face.

"Hiashi-sama, please wait!"

Another voice, this time coming from behind Neji – no, Naruto realised, it wasn't Neji. Belatedly, he realised that he had just walked past Hiashi, Neji's uncle.

"We're going to be late to the academy, Hizashi!" Hiashi half turned around and spoke, his voice high with irritation.

Of course! The Hyuuga twins! Naruto felt himself being pushed along the crowd, but still craned his neck. The dark haired Hizashi was following behind his twin, weaving around people in order to catch up to his brother.

He felt Hiashi's gaze settle upon him, pale eyes tight with concealed impatience. Naruto flashed a wide smile at him.

"Name's Namikaze Minato!" he yelled as the crowd finally swept him away, out of sight. He didn't know if Hiashi deigned to reply, but he swore that he could hear a laugh from the younger twin.

His mood raised, Naruto allowed himself to move along with the flow, intent on enjoying the next few days until Aiko's return.

* * *

><p>"You'll do," the ANBU informed her, before sheathing his katana. "I'd work on increasing your chakra and trap recognition, though."<p>

Aiko kept a blank face as the ANBU evaluated the rest of her abilities. She was startled as she saw the Hokage appear next to the ANBU, but kept her poker face, sure that this was another test.

"Congratulations, Aiko," the Hokage smiled proudly. "I must say that I am very proud to bestow upon you the rank of jounin." Aiko's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but then almost immediately narrowed to almost slits. Then Sarutobi handed her a jounin flak jacket, a knowing smile on his lips, and Aiko knew that it wasn't a ploy to make her lose her guard. The Hokage chuckled. "I know that Minato-kun in particular will be happy to hear the news."

She accepted the vest with reverence and slipped it on.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," she breathed, bowing low to Sarutobi.

* * *

><p>"Hey! Guess what?" Aiko yelled as she leaped through the window. Naruto rolled his eyes at the newly promoted jounin's antics as he sat back on one of his couches, watching Katsuo surf through the TV channels from an upside down position on the other sofa.<p>

"You brought ramen?" he asked lazily. Aiko pointed to her new flak jacket proudly.

"Nope, I made jounin!" she grinned. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her even as a feeling of relief washed over him. "Congratulations," he said dryly. Aiko leaned over the back of the couch, faking a put out look.

"Aren't you happy?" she inquired with a mock hurt tone. Naruto twisted around from his position to look at the jounin. An unreadable expression briefly flitted across his face, but it passed as soon as it came to view, making Aiko wonder if she had imagined it or not.

"Of course not," Naruto replied, giving her a hug.

"Anyway, I'm going to go out for a celebratory dinner with a couple of my teammates and friends," she announced, walking over to the door. "Want to come?"

Katsuo, who had been fiddling with the television controls, looked up and snorted. Naruto pulled a disgusted face. "I don't want to be around a drunken Aiko," he told her, and to prove his point, he propped his legs up on the coffee table as if to display his reluctance to leave.

Aiko sulked for a moment before opening the door, giving the two a jaunty wave before slamming the door shut behind her. There was a brief sound of footsteps tapping on the roof, and then the swish of clothes as Aiko leaped away.

"I want to be able to do that," Katsuo said suddenly, startling Naruto.

"What?" he asked, not understanding the other boy's words.

"I mean I want to be able to jump around on roofs like Aiko," Katsuo clarified, smiling at the thought. "Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Are you going to be a ninja then?"

This time, it was Katsuo's turn to nod. "I'm entering the academy next year," he said.

There was a brief knock on the door. Naruto stood up and padded noiselessly towards the door.

"Hey, Minato," Tetsuya greeted, and stuck his head through. "Is Katsuo there?"

"I'm here," Katsuo called from his awkward position before abandoning the remote and lowering himself carefully to the floor with no small amount of difficulty. Naruto stifled a laugh, but shut up as soon as the other boy sent him a death glare.

"I'll see you later, Minato," the head medic of the Konoha hospital said, before leading Katsuo away.

"See ya!" Katsuo yelled as he turned around.

Naruto smiled and waved back. "Bye!" he called back, and waited until they were out of view before walking back inside and closing the door.

* * *

><p>"Your mission is to retrieve a scroll from a certain person," the Hokage said.<p>

"What classification is it?" Aiko asked. The question was merely a formality, but Aiko said it anyway, to keep routine.

"This mission is a regular C-ranked mission," Sarutobi replied. Aiko tried to suppress the feeling of disappointment, but was only partially successful. The black haired kunoichi had been itching for a higher ranked mission for the past few months, but it seemed that Sarutobi was going out of his way to give her lower ranked missions. She supposed that he did have a reason – after all, Aiko was only a rookie jounin, but still! A genin cell could handle a C-rank mission.

"Your teammates are Yori and Akane," Sarutobi continued, not showing any signs of seeing Aiko's distress.

_Ah,_ Aiko thought, realising what the two other chunin in the room were doing – and therefore what _she_ was doing. The Hokage was putting her together with a group of lower ranked ninja whom she had never met before in order to test her leadership and teamwork. The classification of the mission was purposefully low in order to protect them from harm should the team fall apart. The Hokage wasn't a cruel man, after all. Aiko mentally applauded the Hokage as she turned around to inspect her temporary teammates.

Yori was a lightly built young man who looked to be in his late teens. He had light brown hair and wore a chunin vest. Standard black shinobi pants with bandages wrapped near his ankles completed his outfit. Aiko's sharp analytical eyes noticed the sheathed ninjato strapped to Yori's back and deduced that he was more of a taijutsu fighter than any other.

In contrast, Akane was an older ninja; probably in her late twenties. Her red hair was tied back in two pigtails, and was covered by a dull black bandana, most likely to hide her brightly coloured hair from being too inconspicuous.

_A practical ninja. _Aiko nodded approvingly.

Akane was wearing a loose dark grey shirt without sleeves, enhancing her mobility. Like Yori, she wore practical shinobi pants, although aside from her kunai holster and equipment pouch, she did not seem to have any specialised weapons. Her muscles were not very defined, drawing the conclusion that she either used genjutsu or ninjutsu on a regular basis.

Aiko realised that each individual complemented the team as a whole. Her respect for the Sandaime rose by a few notches.

"Your contact resides in Fuchidori no Sato," Sarutobi said after Aiko was finished with her analysis. "His code name is 'Hibiki' and he is a spy for Jiraiya. He owns a small clothing store in Fuchidori and has black hair with black eyes."

Fuchidori was a middle ground of sorts. It was located just beyond Konoha's north-west borders and was nestled in a small valley between Fire Country, Wind Country and Earth Country.

Aiko looked at the Hokage in surprise. A spy for Jiraiya? Then why was the mission classified as C-rank?

As if predicting Aiko's question, Sarutobi said, "This spy is not an extremely important one, although the information he holds is useful. Retrieve the scroll, but do not open it or let it fall into any other shinobi's hands, lest Hibiki's position be compromised. The time frame for this mission is about a week's time, including travel to and back."

Aiko turned around to Yori and Akane. "Meet me at the western gate in thirty minutes," she ordered.

The two ninja nodded and disappeared simultaneously in a Konoha Shunshin. Aiko gave a sharp nod to Sarutobi before following suit.

* * *

><p>Aiko was busy packing her supplies when Naruto opened the door and tramped into her room.<p>

"What're you doing?" he asked, bounding onto her bed. His arms were already clasped around his head by the time he reached the soft surface. Aiko grunted at him and snatched a storage scroll from a shelf before depositing it into her bag.

"Prepping for a mission," she replied as she zipped her bag up. "I'll be back in around a week." Naruto jumped back up as Aiko slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the room. Then, she stopped abruptly in the middle of the living room, almost causing Naruto to crash into her.

"You'll be alright, won't you, Minato?" she asked, shuffling a little. Naruto smiled back, touched by her care.

"I'll be fine," he promised, and propelled her gently towards the door.

"See you later, then," she said, ruffling his messy blonde locks. Naruto beamed back up at her.

"Bye, Aiko!" he replied. Aiko walked through the doorway and then made a seal, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

><p>Aiko tightened the straps around her bag. Next to her, Akane straightened her bandanna. As the chunin monitoring the western gate checked out their mission passes to leave the village, Aiko checked over her team. She was pleased to notice that both of her teammates' forehead protectors were not glinting in the noonday sun. It was good to know that her teammates hadn't fallen into the trap of polishing them until they reflected light like a beacon.<p>

The chunin stamped the papers and nodded at her. "Let's go," Aiko said, and with a simple hand signal the three dashed past Konoha's western gate.

* * *

><p>The trip to Fuchidori Village was rather uneventful, but boring nonetheless. It was a three day trip to the village, and the first two days were spent watching the forest around them slowly diminish until it was nearly a bare plain.<p>

On the third day, the vegetation around them started to grow again, although not even close to the thickness that was the forest surrounding Konoha. The three made their camp in a small clearing surrounded by a layer of thick vegetation. When morning rolled around, they silently kicked dirt over the remains of the fire and packed away their pallets.

"We'll split up and meet back up here in two hours' time," Aiko said as they reached the crest of the hill, looking down on the village Fuchidori. "Yori, check over the eastern side. Akane, you take the centre, and I'll take the west. Let's split!"

Aiko used a Henge to transform herself into a nondescript looking middle aged man and entered the village. There were plenty of civilians in the streets of Fuchidori at that time of the day, and Aiko had no trouble mingling in with the rest of the crowd. She kept a sharp eye out for any clothing stores, and entered every single one to make sure she didn't pass it by accidentally.

It was almost two hours later when Aiko finally cleared out her sector. It appeared that Hibiki was not located in her area. Sighing to herself, Aiko walked back up to her team's previous location, releasing her henge as she went.

Aiko was at the top of the hill when she realised that she had travelled up the wrong side. Cursing at her error of judgement, she was about to turn and leave when she heard the faint displacement of air that usually signalled a group of ninja moving as one. Heart pounding, Aiko dashed behind the trunk of a large tree, suppressing her chakra.

"Only a few more kilometres to go." The voice belonged to a male with a slight accent. Aiko risked a look around the trunk.

Five ninja were standing in a loose circle. All of them were wearing a jounin flak jacket, and Aiko barely had time to blink before they took off again.

_Cloud-nin? _she thought with a slight trepidation. _What are they doing this far west?_

She stood up abruptly and glanced at the position of the sun in the sky, realising that she was late for her team's rendezvous at the other side of the sharp knoll.

* * *

><p>"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Aiko said as soon as she touched the ground in front of Yori and Akane. "I just saw a Kumo ninja patrol...they're a long way away from home. They headed off west – that's Earth country."<p>

The three exchanged uneasy glances before returning to their task.

"I found Hibiki," Akane said, pointing towards the zone she had been searching. Aiko nodded.

"Good," she replied. "We'll go there now and then head back for Konoha. We'll certainly have some news for Sandaime-sama."

All three of them reapplied their transformations before heading back into the village.

* * *

><p>They waited for the last customer to exit the shop. Aiko gave Akane the go ahead signal, and she walked purposefully towards the counter, where 'Hibiki' was standing. The three of them dropped their respective transformations concurrently as the black haired man paled nervously.<p>

"Hibiki?" Akane inquired softly, stepping forwards. Hibiki started sweating bullets and he backed away from the red head.

"Hibiki? I-I don't know who you're talking about!" his voice was in a high pitch from his anxiety.

Aiko snorted. "You're a horrible liar, Hibiki," she muttered. The calibre of Jiraiya's spies certainly didn't live up to their expectation. The man seemed to compose himself before stepping back to the counter.

"Alright, you got me," Hibiki said in an even tone. "Now, who are you, and what do you want?"

"We are from Konoha," Yori piped up. "Hokage-sama informed us that you are one of Jiraiya-sama's informants and that you have certain...information for us." Hibiki nodded slowly, before reaching into a pocket on the inside of his dark purple jacket.

"Here," he muttered, withdrawing a scroll and handing it over to the person closest to him – Akane. She placed it in her equipment after Aiko's brief hand gesture.

"Is that all?" Hibiki asked briskly, once the scroll was concealed.

Aiko grunted a yes. "We're out of here."

* * *

><p>Aiko glanced up at the darkening sky as the three leaped through the trees. "We've used up quite a bit of the day. Hokage-sama was right when he told us it would take –"<p>

Aiko was cut off as her foot snagged on a wire. She instinctively jumped away as far as she could with a chakra enhanced leap, screaming, "_Take cover!_" as she saw the multitude of exploding tags rigged across the branch. Akane caught Yori when he stumbled, his footing not even, and leaped away as an explosion rocked the clearing.

"So you survived. Pesky little ninja," a voice said darkly. A man stepped out from behind a tree as the Konoha shinobi fell back to the ground.

"Kumo-nin?" Aiko whispered, as another ninja appeared next to their leader. She glanced furtively at their forehead protectors. "No, missing-nin from Cloud," she corrected herself. _Was that why I saw that squad of Cloud ninja from before? Were they tracking these ninja?_

Akane stifled a gasp as a third missing-nin appeared from the underbrush. _And they're all probably jounin level,_ she thought with no small amount of apprehension.

However, that was not what caught Aiko's attention. "Hibiki?" she asked in shock as the third ninja turned his head to the side. One last figure emerged from behind a tree, his black hair damp with perspiration.

"What are you doing here?" Aiko demanded, surreptitiously drawing a kunai. Hibiki darted a glance at Aiko before staring at the ground a metre away from her.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hibiki cried. "They – they made me tell them!"

The third nin smirked cruelly, and with a burst of speed, appeared behind Hibiki. He swiftly drew a kunai and plunged it deep into Hibiki's back before twisting it. A muffled groan emerged from the man as he slumped to the floor.

"You are no longer needed," he murmured to Hibiki's corpse. Then he turned back to the Leaf ninja. "And you, I'm afraid, cannot be allowed to live," he continued, running his tongue along the flat side of his kunai, licking up the blood. Aiko grimaced before launching herself forwards at him. Her hands blurred into seals as she hung suspended in the air. She stopped on the tiger seal.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" she shouted, a great spurt of flame issuing from her mouth. Yori narrowed his eyes as he drew his ninjato, and nodded to Akane. They approached the other two ninja cautiously.

The Cloud-nin danced to the side as the fireball reached him, smirking at Aiko, but he didn't notice the shuriken following it until two sliced into his arms. Hissing furiously, he threw a heavy punch at Aiko as she touched the ground again. She twisted to the side, avoiding his blow with ease. As he overbalanced, Aiko swept his feet from under him, but grimaced in dissatisfaction as he sprung up from a handstand, landing on his feet lightly. He raised his kunai, scowling at her. Aiko frowned. He would be more cautious now.

The two collided in a flurry of high speed taijutsu, with Aiko dodging and weaving. Suddenly, she lunged forwards and threw another kunai at him. The ninja leered at her.

"That's not going to work!" he shouted, stepping to one side as the kunai whistled harmlessly by. Aiko merely smiled. The ninja looked on in horror as he discovered that he was entangled in ninja wire.

"W-what?" he whispered in terror as his back collided forcefully with a tree, the wire digging into his skin. "When?"

Aiko stared at him for a moment, before smiling. "When I threw the two shuriken at you, I had already attached wire to them. The kunai only served to pin you to the tree. You didn't realise it, but you were trapped from the start." The shinobi flailed about helplessly as Aiko commenced her seal sequence.

Serpent, Dragon, Hare, Tiger.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!"

The man screamed powerlessly as he was devoured in flames.

_Hiss!_

A kunai embedded itself in her shoulder and Aiko stumbled, pain blossoming. She cursed at her inattentiveness as her eyes zeroed in on the group of rogue ninjas' leader. Glancing at Yori and Akane, she discovered that the two of them were effectively cutting off the last ninja from helping his leader and cornering him at the same time. She smiled grimly.

_Good, there's only one more to worry about now_, she thought. Another kunai sailed past her ear.

"Your inattention will cost you your life!" the ninja roared as Aiko drew another kunai. She slipped into an open stance as the leader dashed towards her.

_Fast!_ she thought as he appeared before her eyes. She struck out at him, but he seemed to dodge every blow with ease. A niggling sensation entered her mind and she jumped back a few metres, an answer flashing to her in an instant. She brought her hands together in a ram seal.

"Kai!" she called, and the illusion dispelled itself. The lead ninja had actually been several metres away, and was just finishing a seal sequence...

"Raiton: Shuuraiyari!"

Aiko screamed as the ninja collected chakra in his hand and converted it into electricity, its form coalescing into a spear. The lightning spear plunged deep into Aiko's stomach and slashed through her back. Aiko tumbled to the ground, feeling her blood seeping through the fabric of her shirt.

_It's a fatal wound,_ she realised numbly as the spear glowed white-yellow, burning away any blood that made contact with it.

"Aiko-san!" Akane shouted as she ran over to the jounin. Yori extracted his ninjato from last ninja's chest and whipped around, dashing over to Aiko as soon as he saw her. Aiko's opponent laughed maniacally as he commenced another seal sequence.

"That's not all!" he shouted. "Raiton: Shuuraimyaku!"

Aiko twisted in agony, not even strong enough to scream, as the spear embedded inside of her pulsed bright yellow. Blood spurted from her wound as the spear sparked away into nothing, splattering on both of her teammates. In a brief moment of awareness through her haze of pain, she glared at her teammates.

"Run!" she said hoarsely, coughing up blood. Electricity still danced around her body. "I'll...I'll distract him and you make a run for Konoha."

The two started to protest, but Aiko silenced them with one look. "Just do it," she breathed, a wave of dizziness almost overcoming her. "Finish the mission."

"Alright," Akane whispered as she stood up, pulling Yori with her. "Goodbye, Aiko-san."

Aiko smiled bravely at both of them. "Goodbye."

The enemy ninja wasn't pleased. "You're not going anywhere," he grated out, hands ready for another jutsu.

"W-wait!" Aiko called to him, and he turned around, sneering. Aiko shrugged off her bag with some difficulty, and withdrew the storage scroll she had packed. She looked at the man and weakly chuckled.

"I'm going to finish you off with this," she muttered, before counting to five slowly in her head. He started towards Aiko again, but it was too late. With a grunt of exertion, she unravelled the scroll, and grinned humorously as hundreds of exploding tags appeared, and started burning down simultaneously.

Aiko lay flat on her back as her thoughts flickered to a certain blonde haired brat, and a hint of remorse touched her. "I guess I won't be seeing you again after all, Minato," she whispered.

She smiled peacefully, watching the afternoon blue sky as the forest exploded in a huge inferno of exploding tags.

* * *

><p>"Hey, old man! The Ninja Academy starts in a month, I want to join!"<p>

Ignoring the cries of the two chunin guarding the door as he evaded them, Naruto crashed through the doors and bounced into a seat.

He stopped short at the sight of two ninja standing before Sarutobi, both bearing bloody red marks across their clothes and armour. The male ninja handed a scroll to the Hokage.

"...Hokage-jiji?" Naruto asked, feeling slightly weak. Yori gave him a cursory glance as he guided Akane out.

"What was that?" he asked the Sandaime as the two chunin left. Sarutobi sighed before covering his face with his hands, eyes burning with remorse. After a minute, he looked back up, a solemn expression written on his face.

"Aiko is dead, Minato," he said heavily.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>Shorter chapter. Next chapter will include the Academy. Let me know what you think!

Fuchidori no Sato: Fuchidori Village

Konoha Shunshin: Leaf Body Flicker

Henge (no Jutsu): Transformation Technique

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu: Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique

Raiton: Shuuraiyari: Lightning Release: Lightning Strike Spear

Raiton: Shuuraimyaku: Lightning Release: Lightning Strike Pulse


End file.
